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Kinark Sustainable Living Centre

An experiment in prefaB construction

2006 Sustainable Building & Design project

For Kinark’s Sustainable Living Centre, we set out to create a beautiful, functional and comfortable space using materials and methods that have the least possible effect on the environment during construction. Nearly all the materials were harvested on site or locally, using the abundant resources on the 600 acre site. The resulting building is a low-tech wonder, using innovative approaches to make the most of low-cost approaches to achieve high standards of performance.

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Earthbag foundation combined with natural stone footings

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Unique waste wood structural columns supporting round pole roof beams

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Straw bale and straw/clay walls with locally harvested earthen plaster

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Annualized geo-solar tempering of interior environment

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Off-grid energy system with photovoltaics

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